About the speakers

Dr Meredith McKinney is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University who specialises in Japanese literary studies and literary translation. She has published more than 20 English translations of Japanese literary works, ranging from the earliest poetry to contemporary fiction. Her translations for Penguin Classics include The Pillow Book (Makura no sōshi ca. 1000) by Sei Shōnagon, and Kokoro and Kusamakura by the modern master Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916). In 2018 she published the translation of Iwaki Kei's award-winning novel Sayōnara orenji (2013) as Farewell, My Orange, and her most recent publication is Gazing at the Moon (2021), translations of the poetry of the medieval poet-monk Saigyō. Her forthcoming translation for Penguin Classics is A Tale Unasked (Towazugatari), the 14th-century memoir of imperial concubine and later wandering nun, Lady Nijō. Meredith lived and worked in Japan for 20 years before returning to Australia in 1998. She is the daughter of Australian poet and environmental activist Judith Wright, whose work she has co-translated into Japanese.

Title and Abstract:

The changing role of literary translation: some perspectives

Through time and place, translation has always kept its fundamental role of carrying across a precious freight of meaning and knowledge between disparate languages. But the changing history of translation between any two cultures or regions can provide a fascinating window into the shifting relations between them over time. In this talk, I want to look specifically at the way translation from Japanese into English has evolved over the last century, in order to consider some of the implications of that evolution. My focus will largely be on the history of literary translation, its production and the assumptions behind its varying choices, methods and reception. Literature has long been believed to give us a unique window into another culture, but the history of its translation can also provide valuable insights into the complex question of how we have viewed that other culture through time. My own experience of the last 50 years or so, both as a reader and more lately as a translator of Japanese literature, offers an interesting perspective on the role that literary translation has played in the English speaking world's evolving relationship with Japan, and more broadly with Asia in general. What examples of Japanese literature have been considered important down the years, and how and why has this changed? How have translators approached the task of translation, and what have readers sought from these works? How has literature shaped our shifting perceptions of Japan, and how is it shaping it today? These are some of the questions I hope to probe in this overview of the changing role of Japanese literary translation and its continued importance.

Dr Adolfo Gentile is a training consultant in Interpreting and Translating and a NAATI Director, previously Adolfo Gentile was a Member of the Refugee Review Tribunal and Migration Review Tribunal and an Independent Merits Reviewer (Australia). He has been involved in the development of training and certification as well as teaching and research in the fields of Translation & Interpreting for over 40 years. He was the Head of School of Languages, Interpreting and Translating at Deakin University and the Founding Director of the University’s Centre for Research and Development in Interpreting and Translating.  He chaired the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) from 1995 to 2002 and was the president of Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (International Federation of Translators) from 1999 to 2002.  His current research interests are Translation policy and Translation Education. He has written extensively and consulted on the training and practice of translation and interpreting. He is a NAATI Certified Advanced Translator in English <> Italian and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT).

Title and Abstract:

Human rights and interpreting: intersections.

Within the "social turn" of translation studies discussion on the issue of interpreting as a right and as a human right has gained considerable momentum. The discussion often relates to contexts of interpreting which involve humanitarian settings, such as interpreting in war zones or in the refugee space which encompasses asylum seeking, illegal migration, people smuggling, to mention a few. This paper will explore the salient aspects of interpreting when it more often comes to be considered as a right. I will briefly trace the genesis of this discussion and provide a more detailed examination of the Australian response. The research work which has contributed to the debate stemmed initially from a social science perspective (for example Barsky (1994 ), Inghilleri ( 2004, 2007)) and more recently has been looked at from a Translation perspective mainly, but not exclusively, through the lens of professional aspects such as the ethics of interpreting. The intersections refer to a false (in my view) dichotomy which would have concepts such as accuracy of the interpreting and visibility of interpreter, material to the grant or denial of rights in an interpreted interaction. I will use my work on the then Refugee Review Tribunal (now the Administrative Appeals Tribunal) to illustrate how these concepts are problematic in themselves and how, in light of the underlying development of the profession in Australia, they are two of many other aspects which need to be considered; I will also connect these responses to the underlying assumptions about interpreting and translation practice in Australia.

Baker, Mona (2006), Translation and conflict: a narrative account London: Routledge Barsky, Robert F. (1994), Constructing a productive other Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Inghilleri, M. (2004) Translation, Interpretation and Asylum Adjudication  ESRC http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre
Inghilleri, Moira (2007), ‘National Sovereignty versus Universal Rights: Interpreting Justice in a Global Context’, Social Semiotics, 17:2: 195-212
Katan, David (2011) Interpreting as intervention: norms, beliefs and strategies, Interpretazione e mediazione. Un’opposizione inconciliabile pp. 33-66 iris.unisalento.it

Professor Clint Bracknell FAHA is a Noongar song-maker and Professor of Music at the University of Western Australia. He investigates connections between song, language, and landscapes while working on projects to improve Indigenous community access to cultural heritage collections. Clint received the 2020 Barrett Award for Australian Studies and has co-translated world-first Indigenous language works in film and theatre. He serves as Deputy Chair of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Council and maintains a significant creative research agenda, leading development of the Mayakeniny Noongar performance resource and releasing music under the name Maatakitj.

Title and Abstract:

Bruce Lee, Shakespeare, and an endangered Aboriginal language

This presentation will focus on projects my wife Kylie and I undertook translating two major international works into the endangered Noongar language Indigenous to the south of Western Australia: Hecate (2020), a theatrical adaption of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and –  assisted by Melbourne-based artist Felix Ching Ching Ho – Fist of Fury Noongar Daa (2021), a dubbed and re-subtitled version of the Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury (1972). Both translation projects involved parallel processes of language consolidation and re-establishing a community of language speakers. Shakespeare’s work is so enshrined in global popular culture that Macbeth has been adapted and presented in various non-European cultural and linguistic contexts, particularly in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai film Throne of Blood (1957). Hecate is also not alone in its mobilisation of Shakespeare to bolster Indigenous language revitalisation. The Māori language film Te Tangata Whai Rawa o Weniti (2002) was based on a translation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. For many Noongar people however, Shakespeare is symbolic of imposed settler-colonial ideas about high culture and, indirectly, the suppression of Noongar language. Ironically, engaging with something as canonically English as Shakespeare was crucial to Hecate’s success as an act of language revitalisation. Although prompted by the 2013 Navajo dub of the original 1978 Star Wars into Dine Bizaad, we were inspired to re-voice the Hong Kong martial arts film Fist of Fury due to Bruce Lee’s enthusiastic reception amongst Noongar people in the 1970s, as the first non-white hero they had seen on screen. This decision opened rich layers of meaning by connecting the project to varied histories and practices of translation and dubbing in both Hong Kong and Australian contexts. Although complex feats of language reconstitution, community engagement, and creativity, the Hecate and Fist of Fury Noongar Daa are also subversive examples of language activism.